Bouquet Of Empty Songs Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Unbeknownst to the vanishing castle,
The highways all but vanished as the sun did,
And put the egrets into the cypress.
And put the waves away, as with a brush stroke:
Put the mermaids
And the manatees into the somnolence of the bay:
And shushed the cars as well,
And closed the fruit markets- and emptied
The daylight’s well: and my love for you was gone
As the waves crested waves in the darkness:
But all of the things I thought I’d thought
For you- I couldn’t even spell-
And I could no longer open up to you the things
I’d hoped to sell- and the many feet of
The echoing throngs disappeared like the octopi
In the depths that spread of like roses from a
Bouquet of empty songs.